THE COLONEL'S PHOTOGRAPH -- Eugene Ionesco

Grove Press -- hc
New York -- ©1967 -- 177pp
Library of Congress catalog number: 67-20347
originally published in France as La Photo du Colonel
translated by Jean Stewart (except "Stoller in the Air," translated by John Russell)

A collection of short stories by absurdist playwright, Ionesco.

"Oriflamme"
"The Colonel's Photograph"
"The Stroller in the Air"
"A Victim of Duty"
"Rhinoceros"
"The Slough"
"Spring 1939"

It was very interesting to read these stories, most of which are also plays by the author. It is not clear if the stories were written before the plays or afterwards, but according to the inside flap of the dust cover, Ionesco prefers writing fiction to drama. There is certainly a sense of wonder, in his characters, over the events that happen in these absurdist pieces, and the playfulness, particularly in "Stoller" comes through nicely. A work such as "Oriflamme" or "Rhinoceros" might work better on stage because of the shock value of actually seeing a growing corpse or people turning in to rhinoceroses.

"Spring 1939" was interesting. I'm not sure if it's actual fragments of a journal or a story to come off that way. It grew a little tedious, which makes me think it's truly a journal.

For me this was a real pleasure. There isn't much Ionesco that I haven't already read (in English), so to find something like this, which is new to me is an absolute prize.

I can't imagine too many people liking this as I did, so it doesn't get recommended, but it does get "thumbs up."

HIGH COUNTRY -- Nevada Barr

Recorded Books -- CD
unabridged -- 2004 -- 8 CDs
ISBN: 1402573669

National Park Ranger Anna Pigeon goes undercover as a waitress to try and learn the reasons behind the disappearance of four young people from Yosemite National Park.

I've said it before, and I'll repeat it here, I'm generally not a fan of the mystery fiction genre. I've read a few of the Nevada Barr/Anna Pigeon mysteries simply because I am a fan of our National Parks, and I liked the idea of using the Parks for literary series'. The fact that Nevada Barr is also a true National Park Ranger has made it more interesting.

I am also not in the habit of listening to a book rather than reading one, but because I knew I was going to be driving a good distance several days in a row, I quickly rushed to my library to look for a book on CD that I thought I might enjoy.

This has been my least favorite of the books I have "read" by Barr. I immediately sensed the "red herrings" and was sure I knew who was behind the trouble (I was right). The fact that drugs played a key role in the plot was a real disappointment. Didn't drugs figure in to another of her books? I believe so.

I guess, all in all, it really just seemed too easy. I didn't have to work much as a reader, and I didn't feel she had to work too hard as a writer -- stock characters and plot, and a wonderful setting that never really figured in to the story.

Not recommended.

THE SEA -- John Banville

Alfred A. Knopf -- hc
New York -- ©2005 -- 195pp
ISBN: 0-307-26311-8
Man Booker Prize Winner

A man returns to a sea-side home to reflect on life, death, and love after the death of his wife.

I enjoyed this novel more than Banville's The Eclipse, but a little Banville goes a long way for me. The melancholy of Banville's writing and themes wears thin, and I find myslef emotionly exhausted simply from trying to stay energized while reading his work.

The weaving of the reflections the narrator recreates, is well done and much easier to follow than it was in the previous novel I read. But when a narrator tells a story by way of a thread which ultimately leads back his reflections after the death of his wife, even the most exciting of times (a young boy's glance up the skirt of his heart's desire [the mother of a friend]) comes across painfully reflective and curious rather than dangerous and exciting. This is that melancholy that becomes the mood throughout.

I won't be venturing in to Banville territory anytime too soon. I need more than reflection in the books I read.

I hesitantly recommend this book. It is well written and offers some nice insights to a life, but it does seem to be paced in a very monotonous way.

ECLIPSE -- John Banville

Alfred A. Knopf -- hc
New York -- ©2000 -- 212pp
ISBN: 0-375-41129-1

An aging actor believes he is encountering ghosts at his childhood home, where he has retreated to in order to reflect on his life and career.

Banville's writing is very lyrical, and one can enjoy the simplest of descriptions. Sometimes, however, the descriptions get in the way of the progress of the story. Any time I encounter writing in which paragraphs run longer than two pages, I begin to wonder if the paragraph is filled with description or advancing story. The best writing, I believe, should be an appropriate balance between the two.

This book was difficult to follow at times, though I've come to see that it is set up as a five-act drama, with each "act" containing specific aspects of the story/life of the narrator. Knowing this helps to put some focus in to the reading of the book. Though I suppose, with my theatre background, I should have been able to figure that out, there is nothing at the beginning of the book to indicate that the story is put together in five parts.

The title of the book is perhaps prophetic as this book seems to have been eclipsed by Banville's The Untouchable (which was published immediately before this), and his most recent, Man Booker Prize winning, The Sea.

Not recommended as a first foray into the books of John Banville.

BEST ONE-ACT PLAYS 1947-1948 -- ed. Margaret Mayorga

Dodd, Mead & Company -- hc
New York -- ©1948 -- 278pp

A collection of one-act plays.

Introduction -- Margaret Mayorga
"On This Green Bank" -- Sylvan Karchmer
"The Sunny Side of the Atom" -- Carl Beier and Ruth Ashton
"Suffer the Little Children" -- Nicholas Bela
"Who Are the Weavers" -- Joseph Shore and Scott Graham Williamson
"A Woman's Privilege" -- Marrijane and Joseph Hayes
"Frankie and Albert (A Play with Music)" -- Elizabeth Wilson Hughes
"Easter Eve" -- Anna F. Trevisan
"Through a Glass Darkly" -- Stanley Richards
"The Meadow" -- Ray Bradbury
"Before the Bullfight" -- Theodore Apstein
Bibliographies
Selected Plays of the Year
New Collections of One-Act Plays

A mostly forgettable, unremarkable collection. Assuming that these were indeed the best from 47-48, then they just don't stand the test of time. Only "A Woman's Privilege" stands out as being very Pinter-esque, before Pinter had made a name for himself. Almost theatre of the absurd, just before Ionesco revolutionized/created the genre.

No real gems here, sadly.

THE SILENCE OF THE LOONS -- "The Minnesota Crime Wave"

Nodin Press -- tpb
Minneapolis, MN -- ©2005 -- 224pp
ISBN: 1-932472-36-3
Introduction by R.D. Zimmerman

A collection of short, mystery stories selected by a regional fiction, crime-writing group. A list of eight items were given to each author, and each story had to contain at least three of those items as part of the mystery. As reader's, our mystery was to see if we could identify what those eight items were. Stories included in the anthology are:

Introduction -- R.D. Zimmerman
"Holiday Murder at Harmony Lake" -- M.D. Lake
"Loon Lodge" -- Mary Logue
"Before Swine" -- William Kent Krueger
"The Gates" -- Judith Guest
"Root of the Matter" -- Monica Ferris
"Mickey's Last Mark" -- K.J. Erickson
"Norwegian Noir" -- Ellen Hart
"A Winter's Tale" -- Carl Brookins
"Take Me Out" -- Lori Lake
"Waltz of the Loons" -- Deborah Woodworth
"Confidential Sources" -- Kerri Miller
"A Domestic Matter" -- David Housewright
"Jake" -- Pat Dennis

I'm not a big reader of mystery fiction, but this intrigued me because of it's origins and it's Minnesota roots. Over-all, I really enjoyed this collection...much more than I thought that I might (made me think that I ought to try my hand at some mystery fiction). In fact, only one story struck me as NOT being good, and oddly enough, that was the story by the biggest "name" (to me, anyway) -- Judith Guest. It seemed to me that she either misunderstood the rules or was trying to be smart and included all eight items in her very briefest of stories.

A fun collection, well-worth reading.

THE DEVIL'S STORYBOOK -- Natalie Babbitt

Farrar Strauss Giroux -- hc
New York -- ©1974 -- 101pp
ISBN: 0-374-31770-4
illustrations by the author

A collection of short stories -- fables -- featuring the Devil.

"Wishes"
"The Very Pretty Lady"
"The Harps of Heaven"
"The Imp in the Basket"
"Nuts"
A Palindrome"
"Ashes"
"Perfection"
"The Rose and the Minor Demon"
"The Power of Speech"

These very brief stories were actually a delight to read. The come across as fables, each with a short moral. My daugher had requested the book from the library because she wanted to read as much Natalie Babbitt as she could, after watching Tuck Everlasting on television. My daughter, too, enjoyed these stories. It only takes about an hour to read through the entire book, but the writing flows nicely and most of the stories were quite enjoyable to read.

A LONG WAY DOWN -- Nick Hornby

Riverhead Books -- hc
New York -- ©2005 -- 333pp
ISBN: 1-57322-302-6
signed by Nick Hornby

Four people's lives become entwined when they meet on New Year's Eve, each with the intention of committing suicide.

I enjoyed this book, though I did feel that it had difficulty maintaining the story once we got to know each of the people involved (which happened fairly quickly -- at least by the end of the first third of the book).

The book is written from the point of view of each of the four people who had intended to kill themselves. For the most part, they were fairly interchangeable (they all seemed to react the same way towards each other) with the exception of the sheltered woman who has spent her life taking care of her whp os, for the most part, a vegetable.

The four people involved seem to be stock characters. Who you think they are at the beginning of the book is pretty much who they are at the end of the book, though perhaps a tad wiser in one or two cases.

I think that the American, "JJ" sums it up well:

"I had wanted to kill myself, not because I hated living, but because I loved it. ...We were up on the roof because we couldn't find a way back into life..."

I've read that many critics do not feel that this is Hornby at his best, and I'll likely read more of his work.

GROUCHO MARX, SECRET AGENT -- Ron Goulart

Thomas Dunne Books -- hc
New York -- ©2002 -- 210pp
ISBN: 0-312-28005-X

Groucho Marx joins forces with screenwriter Frank Denby to solve a murder case, which involves the FBI, Nazis, and plenty of bad puns.

I picked up this book on a whim. I've long been a fan of the Marx Brothers films, and as a teenager, I often enjoyed the humorous sci-fi novels of Ron Goulart, so I thought that this might be a fun, quick ride.

The book isn't bad, but it's certainly no literary masterpiece. Mostly we have a lot of Groucho-like witticisms and a bare, weak plot involving Nazis (before America is thrown in to the War).

This appears to be the fifth in a series of Groucho mysteries, and other reviews suggest it is the weakest of them. If I happen to be wandering through a library and come across one of the other titles in the series, I may check it out for a quick read.

Not recommended.

WHEN ZACHARY BEAVER CAME TO TOWN -- Kimberly Willis Holt

Dell Yearling -- tpb
New York -- ©1999 -- 227pp
ISBN: 0-440-22904-9
National Book Award gold medal winner

One summer, young Toby learns that interesting things can happen, even in Antler, Texas -- his mother leaves to try to make it as a country singer in Nashville, his best-friend's brother dies in Vietnam, and he befriends "The World's Fattest Boy."

The writing of this was crisp and clear, and easy to read, and seemed like an enjoyable novel. However, as I think on it now, there are too many loose ends and sub-plots that don't go anywhere (the whole idea of Toby trying to gain the favor of a certain young girl, and then fixing her up again with her ex-boyfriend seems pointless in retrospect).

Some lofty themes and dealing with issues such as death and divorce make it easy to see why this is an award winner, but it is not a book that I would recommend to students or for study.

OUR SIMPLE GIFTS: CIVIL WAR CHRISTMAS TALES -- Owen Parry

William Morrow -- hc
New York -- ©2002 -- 149pp
ISBN: 0-06-001378-8

A short collection of Christmas stories set during the Civil War.

"Star of Wonder"
"Tannenbaum"
"Nothing But A Kindness"
"Christmas Gift"
A Christmas Request to the Reader

I am always on the look-out for short Christmas-related stories, and I liked the idea of these being set in the Civil War time, but only the first story struck a chord with me, and even at that, it was quite predictable.

Not a collection to recommend.

THE STAGGERFORD FLOOD -- Jon Hassler

Plume -- tpb
New York -- ©2002 -- 197pp
ISBN: 0-452-28462-7

As the Badbattle River overflows it's banks, a reunion, of sorts, takes place at Agatha McGee's house.

This book did not hold nearly the charm that the first Staggerford book held. It could be that the first book definitely seemed to have a driving purpose, but the only purpose for this book seemed to be to get some characters from previous books together. And while it does this, there seems to be nothing happening once they are together.

Except...the only thing that actually happens (other than the flood) is that Agatha tells a whopper of a lie (for good reason, of course). This seems totally out of character, and while Hassler does have Agatha dwell over it, it never sits right -- not the Agatha that he established in early Staggerford books!

It certainly wouldn't have hurt if I had missed this book.

STORMY WEATHER/TOURIST SEASON/STRIP TEASE -- Carl Hiaasen

Random House Audio Books
6 Audio Cassettes
Stormy Weather ©1995; Tourist Season ©1986; Strip Tease ©1993
Read by Ed Asner

Three books by Carl Hiaasen on six (abridged?) cassettes.

I have enjoyed the children's/YA books by Hiaasen, and so I was looking for a crash course in his adult novels. While the library packaging for these books does not indicate whether or this set is abridged, I would suspect that it is.

STORMY WEATHER was probably the most enjoyable with the various plots and sub-plots coming together. TOURIST SEASON seemed less busy, but also less cohesive. I recognized STRIP TEASE almost immediately as the basis for the Demi Moore movie by the same name.

WHat I don't like about Hiaasen is very casual dismissal (usually by means of a grisly death) of major characters as almost a footnote. In Strip Tease, "the most poweful man in Florida politics" ends up a corpse in a fish locker on a yacht, and I feel that we are told that much only because as readers we demand to know. The loser, drug-addict, ex-husband of the female lead in the book, winds up chopped in to tiny bits in a sugar cane factory. We are told this by taking us out of the immediate action and sending us in to the future -- being told what will happen.

I won't be eagerly seeking out any of Hiaasen's adult novels in the future.

THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2004 -- Louis Menand, Editor

Series Editor, Robert Atwan
Houghton Mifflin Company -- tpb
Boston -- ©2004 -- 323pp
ISBN: 0-618-35709-2

A collection of essays selected from those which were printed in magazines between January 2003 and January 2004.

Forward -- Robert Atwan
Introduction -- Louis Menand
"America, Look at Your Shame!" -- James Agee
"Envy" -- Kathryn Chetkovich
"The Last Americans" - Jared Diamond
"The Arctic Hedonist" -- Anne Fadiman
"Caught" -- Jonathan Franzen
"The Unreal Thing" -- Adam Gopnik
"A Sudden Illness" -- Laura Hillenbrand
"Passover in Baghdad" -- Tim Judah
"My '80s" -- Wayne Koestenbaum
"My Yiddish" -- Leonard Michaels
"Bix and Flannery" -- Ben Miller
"Against Cool" -- Rick Moody
"Yarn" -- Kyoko Mori
"Lifelike" -- Susan Orlean
"Rock 101" -- Alex Ross
"The Mind's Eye" -- Oliver Sacks
"My Lost City" -- Luc Sante
"Arrow and Wound" -- Mark Slouka
"My Father is a Book" -- Janna Malamud Smith
"Bullet in My Neck" -- Gerald Stern
"Amor Perdida" -- Tennessee Williams
"An Enlarged Heart" -- Cynthia Zarin
Biographical Notes
Notable Essays of 2003

I found that most of these were indeed quite notable and enjoyable to read. I found "A Sudden Illness," ""My '80s," "Bix and Flannery," "Against Cool," "My Father is a Book," and "An Enlarged Heart" to be of the most interest and/or best written. Some ("Passover in Baghdad," "Rock 101," "Arrow and Wound") didn't reach me at all. The others were just sort of "there" and interesting to read, but leave no real lasting memories.

I look forward to the next in the series, now available.

ROGER ZELAZNY'S THE DAWN OF AMBER -- John Gregory Betancourt

Book One of the New Amber Trilogy
ibooks, inc -- hc
New York -- ©2002 -- 299pp
ISBN: 0-7434-5240-2

A prequel to Roger Zelazny's Amber series, following Lord Oberon and his introduction to his family, and their first fight against hell-creatures.

The very first thing that strikes me as I read this is that this is NOT Roger Zelazny writing. In fact, if it were not for the fact that I recognize Betancourt's name, I would wonder if this was even a professional writer -- the opening chapter came across as very amateurish. Lot's of telling, and no "showing" -- no making us feel a part of the action.

While that sense of "low" writing never entirely vanished, I did become more engrossed in the story itself. Even there, however, I knew that I wasn't reading Zelazny. Zelazny could weave a story with intricate threads of characters and sub-plots and story lines. And if Zelazny was a master weaver, producing a solitary fine work of excellent quality, Betancourt is a machine producing a cheap replica that might satisfy those who can't tell the difference.

In general, I also dislike any series which requires one to purchase multiple books to get a sense of the story. Each book should be able to stand on it's own as a book. I don't believe this one accomplishes that.

I may read the others in the trilogy, but only because I'm curious about the story. I will most certainly seek out library books or used copies.